How To Have More Self Control: Look At The Big Picture

Thinking about the big picture instead of the little steps required along the way can help to give us the self-control we need to reach a goal, according to new research.

This finding could be especially useful for weight loss. For example, when confronted with the choice between a piece of fruit or an unhealthy snack, thinking of the end weight loss result could better help you pick the fruit, researchers said.

Ultimately, the study suggests that “high-level construal (the use of cognitive abstraction to extract the essential and goal-relevant features common across a class of events), relative to low-level construal (the process of highlighting the incidental and idiosyncratic features that render a particular event unique), promotes self-control,” the researchers wrote in the study.